Decades of taped meetings may come back to haunt retail giant
May 5, 2008 by Fred HosierPosted in: Employees do the strangest things, In this week's e-newsletter, Latest News & Views, Oh no they didn't
Does your company tape activities around your workplace? If so, you might be interested in a brewing case involving Wal-Mart. The results may range from simple embarrassment to being able to prove bias against women.
It’s time to pick on Wal-Mart again. Really, we here at HRB don’t mean to. But they are the nation’s largest retailer, and when they provide material like this, can you blame us?
In this YouTube age, it’s possible for you to see friends, neighbors, relatives, co-workers, and – gulp – maybe even yourself in embarrassing if not compromising situations on the Web.
So imagine how Wal-Mart executives must be feeling now that 30 years of company meetings and other activities are for sale from a spurned video company. Some are even trying to use the tapes to prove that Wal-Mart has a bias against women.
Wal-Mart used Flagler Productions for 30 years to videotape internal meetings. Two years ago, the retailer fired the company.
Result for Flagler: Most of its revenue dried up.
Solution for Flagler (and revenge is sweet): Offer 15,000 tapes for sale for $250 per hour plus an additional fee for DVD copies.
Among the tapes for sale: One showing managers in drag leading thousands of co-workers in the company’s corporate cheer. (Calling Virginia Ham and her sisters, Robin Banks and Clare Vuoyant.)
That’s embarrassment enough. However, it gets worse. The group Wal-Mart Watch is using that footage to show the company’s alleged attitude toward female employees.
But hold on, you’re saying at this point. Don’t those tapes belong to Wal-Mart? No, because the company never signed a contract with Flagler. Copyright law says without a contract, whoever filmed the footage owns it.
Now, all sorts of Wal-Mart foes, including many with legal cases against the retailer, are flocking to Flagler, willing to pay to see what was said behind closed doors.
Possible solution for Wal-Mart: Buy the videos back. And it has made an offer: half a million dollars.
Sweet revenge again for fired Flagler: It wants $14.5 million.
We’ll keep you posted.
Tags: company meeting, men in drag, tape recordings, Wal-Mart, YouTube
May 9th, 2008 at 2:07 pm
I believe this is just one of the many things Wal-Mart has been getting away with for years that are just now coming to light. I’m sure there will be more….
May 9th, 2008 at 3:34 pm
Sorry, but I believe revenge never amounts to anything good.
May 9th, 2008 at 4:32 pm
I think one might be able to prove this as an attempt at extortion? If sitting in a jury box I would see it that way. Some of this is so old it can not be used and in sales skits etc. I seroiusly question the validity of claiminmg a bias…
May 12th, 2008 at 11:58 am
I can’t stand Walmart, I won’t shop there even if it is the least expensive place. But at best, what Flagler is doing is unethical. Walmart hired them to do a job and when their services were no longer wanted or needed their business relationship ended.
How would we like it if anytime we paid a photographer/videographer for a private event, they turned around and sold it to a stranger or put it on the internet?
This nation’s morality has gone to hell!
August 8th, 2008 at 11:02 am
I think Flagler checked to make sure they were within their legal rights and did what Walmart would probably do given the same circumstances. If the tapes substantiate the claims of those discriminated against, Walmart deserves the lawsuits. If I were in charge at Walmart, I would think $14.5 mil was a bargain.